Monday, September 20, 2010

Adoption 35: Justin to Holland

On July 19th we got three babies from the orphanage. Justin, Josie and Joseph. As I mentioned before, the three J babies. Justin weighed a whopping 5 and a 1/4 pounds or 2.35 kg. There were two very obvious things about him besides his size. He was missing his hand below his elbow and he had a big mouth. He remember he ate a lot and slept even more. I tried to take Chinese New Year pictures of him and I just wrapped him in a red cloth and took some pictures.

He slept in the window on one of your bassinets and for the first few months he was hardly out of that area because he was asleep. Slowly but sure he started to leave his corner and out popped this boy with the best smile you have ever seen. He was so friendly and easy going from the beginning and would let any one hold him. It was really interesting to see him use his little arm. The hand was spontaneously amputated in the womb and from what I understand it is a result of malnourishment. These strings form and once it get caught around a limb it is strong enough to cut it off. He was not deterred! His one hand would hold his bottle and his little arm would stabilize it on the other side. His answer to crawling was to scoot along the floor and boy could he move. As he started walking he would hold out both his arms for balance. Soon he was walking well and he would tuck things under his arm. I loved the fact that he has no stresses by not having a hand. It was just so normal to him. Kids are simply amazing in their ability to adapt.

That big mouth soon became a cause for a Colgate toothpaste commercial. Stunning is the only word I could use.

Soon all his paperwork was in Beijing and we got the news that he had a family but we had no idea where. One day the Big O asked me to fill in some paperwork about Justin and I saw at the end of the page the name of the Dutch adoption services and I knew he was going to the Netherlands. I am sure his parents must have been so surprised at the load of information that arrived. We had a whole lot of Dutch volunteers here. So Justin's nanny got the reputation for sending her babies to the Netherlands. It was Starfish's fourth baby in Holland and Xiao Liu was the nanny to three of them.

Justin became Youp which is part of his Chinese name with an added P. He is also the younger brother of a sister who also comes from China.

Life, love and laughter,
Amanda

Starfish Children's Services
US Tax Number: 20-4682916
Xian China

At Starfish, we have taken care of 118 children to date, arranged more than 100 surgeries and had 45 international adoptions, so our little starfishes live all over the globe: the US, Netherlands, Norway, France, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Canada and in China. Our latest 5 adoptions took place recently and now we have a second baby in Sweden and in Spain. We also have three more babies in the US. We currently have 45 babies under the age of 3 and three foster homes our count is dropping as we prepare to move to a new facility. www.thestarfishfosterhome.orghttp://chinesestarfish.blogspot.comhttp://chinesestarfishcleft.blogspot.com
Email: throwingstarfish0913@gmail.com
Cell: 86.1348.812.4847